Hidden Sounds

Building on Michel Chion’s desire to be finished with the concept of noise*, I want to create a space where tempered and non-tempered sonorities can coexist. The traditionally unwanted sounds that would be removed during the post-production editing of a piano concert recording are not only given a prominent voice but also amplified and spatialized. I see Hidden Sounds as a dialogue between socially accepted sounds, such as brilliantly executed scalar passages, and traditionally avoided sounds, such as un-pitched noise. The length of phrases is undetermined and before starting a new idea the performer needs to wait for the piano to wind down. By refraining from the temporal grid, I provide space for a conversation between the performer and the instrument. 

*“Pour en finir avec la notion de bruit” is the preface to the epilogue of Chion’s book Le Promeneur écoutant: essais d'acoulogie

Piano Keith Kirchoff